This application is related to commonly assigned pending U.S. patent applications Ser. Nos. 08/379,425 and 08/379,430; and is related to three commonly assigned, concurrently filed, pending U.S. patent applications entitled: COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AND METHOD USING TWO-WAY PAGING TO PROVIDE CALL CONTROL Ser. Nos. 08/579,184, 08/579,539, 08/579,540; which are hereby incorporated by reference.
This invention relates to communications systems, and more particularly to using paging technology to establish communications with a mobile party.
In general, persons wishing to contact a particular party initiate a call to a telephone specifically known to be associated with that party, such as the party""s office or wireless telephone. A disadvantage of this method of communication is that parties are not always in close proximity to such associated telephones, or for that matter, in close proximity to any telephone. This presents a problem to persons who need to immediately contact a mobile party, regardless of that party""s location.
Several technologies have developed in an effort to solve the problem of establishing communication with a mobile party. These include call forwarding, paging, and cellular systems. However, each of these technologies has drawbacks which prevent seamless and ubiquitous communication.
The inventions disclosed in the Ser. Nos. 08/379,425 and 08/379,430 applications (the ""425 and ""430 inventions, respectively), cited hereinabove, address many of the problems associated with prior systems used to communicate with mobile individuals. Both of those inventions describe a call routing scheme in which each subscriber is assigned a Personal Telephone Number (PTN) and uses a two-way pager to route calls placed to that number. In the ""430 invention, when a call is placed to the subscriber""s PTN, a network database query is generated and information about how to handle the call is retrieved (referred to as xe2x80x9cregistrationxe2x80x9d type routing). In the ""425 invention, when a call is placed to the subscriber""s PTN, the subscriber""s pager number is retrieved from the database and an alerting page is sent to the subscriber. The subscriber may then use the two-way pager to transmit a terminating number back to the network in response to the alerting page (referred to as xe2x80x9ccall-by-callxe2x80x9d type routing).
Despite the numerous advantages of the ""425 and ""430 inventions, they do not provide the ability to perform subsequent routing in response to received call control parameters from the mobile subscriber. Subsequent routing refers to the routing of a call that has been previously routed, or that has already received answer supervision. Failure to include a subsequent routing capability limits a subscriber""s options by committing the subscriber to only an initial routing choice. Moreover, absence of a subsequent routing ability increases the burden on network resources, because without subsequent routing a call must be held (or xe2x80x9cparkedxe2x80x9d) at some point in the network until a decision on the routing destination is madexe2x80x94while awaiting the subscriber""s transmission of call control parameters, or a determination that such parameters will not be received. Whereas, with subsequent routing the call does not have to be parked, but rather, can be initially completed to some default terminating station with a rerouting of the call to a different terminating station occurring whenever the subscriber transmits a signal indicating a change in the desired terminating station.
The present invention employs a two-way paging technique to overcome the disadvantages present in the prior systems used to communicate with mobile individuals while providing those individuals with the ability to perform subsequent routing.
A mobile person who wishes to take advantage of the present invention is equipped with a two-way pager and is assigned a Personal Telephone Number (PTN). The mobile person uses the pager to transmit one or more call control parameters to a paging service which, in turn, relays the parameters to the telephone network. The network may then use the parameters to control calls directed to the person""s PTN. For example, the parameters may include a terminating station number, to which calls directed to the PTN are to be routed. The parameters may be transmitted on a xe2x80x9cregistrationxe2x80x9d basis, in which case they are stored in a database and retrieved whenever a call is placed to the subscriber""s PTN; or on a xe2x80x9ccall-by-callxe2x80x9d basis, in which case the mobile person transmits the parameters in response to a page alerting the person of a call to the PTN.
In addition to routing calls conventionally and according to xe2x80x9cregistrationxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ccall-by-callxe2x80x9d procedures, the invention is capable of routing calls according to a xe2x80x9csubsequent routingxe2x80x9d procedure. Subsequent routing is used to route calls that have been initially routed to a first terminating station using any routing procedure(s) to a different terminating station (even after the call was answered at the first terminating station) by using call control parameters transmitted from a two-way pager. This increases the flexibility of the call routing service offered. For example, a subscriber may use the two-way pager to route a call to a first terminating station where the call is answered, wait a period of time, and then use the two-way pager to route the call to a second telephone station, at which the call may again be answered. In another example a call may be routed to a first terminating station where the subscriber identifies the caller through the use of Automatic Number Identification (ANI) and then routes the caller, based upon the identification, to a different terminating station. In addition to added flexibility of service, subsequent routing reduces the burden on network resources since calls do not have to be parked in the network while they await routing.
Each time the subscriber changes the terminating station using subsequent routing he may also specify new call control parameters (e.g., bandwidth and protocol) that are to be used for the call when it is routed to the new terminating station. Thus, for example, a high bandwidth multimedia call that is initially routed at low bandwidth using a voice-only protocol to a voice-only terminating station may be subsequently routed to a multimedia capable terminating station using full, or partial, bandwidth and a multimedia protocol in response to the subscriber""s call control parameters from the two-way pager. Alternatively, the parameters of the call may be selected to best match the terminating station to which the call is subsequently routed.